This week, we begin the Torah. Well, not really, but Rashi (the medieval French Torah commentator from the town of Troyes) famously asks why the Torah starts where it does, but assumes that it should or could begin with the beginning of this week’s parashah, Parashat Bo. When people study Rashi’s comment on Bereisheet 1:1, the focus is usually on God’s ownership of the world and that God has the right to give the land of Israel to the Jewish people. But Rashi’s Hava Amina הווה אמינא (presumption of what would be rational, an Aramaic term in wide use in the Talmud, which translates in Hebrew to הייתי אומר, I would/might say) that the Torah should begin with Parashat Bo is often neglected. Rashi explains his presumption by saying that the Torah could have started here in Exodus 12 because it is the first mitzvah (command) which Israel was commanded שֶׁהִיא מִצְוָה רִאשׁוֹנָה שֶׁנִּצְטַוּוּ בָּהּ יִשׂרָאֵל. One could explain Rashi’s comment by assuming that Rashi imagines that the Torah might be read as a book of law, and so starting with the first mitzvah makes sense.
I, however, think that there is a slightly more subtle contrast between the beginning of this week’s parashah and the beginning of Genesis. The first mitzvah to which Rashi refers is Hachodesh Hazeh Lakhem Rosh Hodashim הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים (This month will be for you the beginning of the months) which Maimonides describes as the command to sanctify the lunar months and to calculate the years. The beginning of Genesis is about the creation of the world, but it is also about the beginning of time. Parashat Bo, according to our halakhic/legal tradition, puts responsibility for time into the hands of the Jewish people. In context, this was truly the first command for the Jewish people emerging from slavery, because slaves don’t get to make choices about how to use their time. Even before commanding Israel to slaughter a lamb, a god of the Egyptians, the Jewish people are commanded to be concerned about time and informed that we are responsible for our calendar.
As a school administrator, I regularly focus on calendars and schedules. Making choices of how to use our time are among our most important choices, and choice is what makes us free. So this shabbat, let’s consider how we spend our time, because time is a currency as much as dollars of shekels. Spending time, saving time, and investing time are among our most transformative choices. Shabbat gives us an opportunity to take off our watches, put down our phones, and enjoy time. I hope this week, we can reflect on the choices that fill our time, and make sure that our investments of time are just as much an expression of our values as are our other investments.
Shabbat Shalom
Jeffrey Spitzer
Shabbat Shalom,
Jeffrey Spitzer